Graduate School of International and Area Studies

The Civil Code of the Empire of Ethiopia 1960 (here after Civil Code) does not provide definition of mortgage. I assume that this is probably because the lawmaker acknowledged that the definition for mortgage might differ based on the contextual usage of the term. When we say "Mortgage", we may be referring to the juridical act, or the property that is furnished as a security or the right of the creditor on the security. Mortgage as a juridical act has distinct validity requirements though varying based on its sources. Out of these validity requirements, this work emphasizes on the requirement of authentication and witnesses which are both relevant for conventional mortgage. Authentication as a validity requirement regarding some contracts concerning immovable properties including mortgage was first affirmed by the Federal Supreme Court Cassation Bench decision on file number 21448. The Cassation bench while rendering this decision built its reasoning on the Amharic version of Article 1723 of the Civil Code. Subsequent rulings of the bench at least by majority vote of the judges were also in line with similar precedent although in some of the rulings dissenting opinion against interpretation of the majority was expressed. Latest decisions on the other hand are against these precedents and from the reading of several related cases, it is very difficult to either consider authentication as a validity requirement or not. Likewise, regarding the requirement of witnesses concerning contracts which have to be made in writing including conventional mortgage, the law being clear on the effect of non-fulfillment of witnesses' requirement and decisions of the bench affirming the same, latest precedents are against the laws and the benches' own prior interpretations. Therefore, this work is aimed at unravelling these inconsistencies in the existing precedents and provides valuable observation for subsequent decisions based on a meticulous legal analysis.

The application of the concept of economic efficiency to legal
profession emerged with the development of the law and
economics movement few decades ago. Even though law has been
functioning for centuries, the question of its economic efficiency
has intensively been used since the 1960s which largely is believed
to be the time when the movement came in to existence. Economic
analysis of law refers to the study of the role of economics in the
formation of legal policy and more, it is the study of laws using
assumptions and methodologies of economics. Economic efficiency
which is a concept discussed at the heart of economic analysis of
law is a very fluid concept to fully grasp but it can crudely be
stated as the maximization of “utility” or “welfare” (or “wealth”
in the words of Richard A. Posner) in a world of finite resources.
Thus, efficient law is one which maximizes welfare (or “wealth”)
through a successful realization of intent of the law maker. In this
paper, the writer employs a doctrinal legal research method to
analyze the value of economic efficiency from the perspective of
competition and consumer protection laws. The paper treats
trademark law as part and parcel of antitrust (competition and
consumer protection) laws and argues that its interpretation
before courts of law or any organ with judicial authority should
comply with its efficiency objectives.

Construction time overrun is one of the common inefficiencies of public construction projects in Ethiopia. Laws and standard construction contracts stipulate different legal remedies against project time overrun. This paper is meant to unravel these legal remedies and their application to construction project time overrun in public construction projects in Ethiopia. To this end, the magnitude of time overrun, its common causes, and the practical implementation of legal remedies against it is exposed through literature review, primary data obtained from 18 roads and 10 public building projects, and interviews of 10 key informants. The result showed, although time is not the essence of construction contract in international standard conditions of contracts, it is a fundamental obligation the breach of which would give rise to termination of the contract under the laws and standard conditions of contracts applicable to public works in Ethiopia. However, the paper established that the practical implantation of these legal remedies against time overrun in public construction projects is very erratic although time overrun is a rampant challenge of the construction industry of the country in general and public construction projects in particular.

Time, money, and quality are the three basic criteria for measuring construction project efficiency. The Ethiopian construction sector in general and public work projects, in particular, are believed to suffer from inefficiencies despite their quantitative growth in recent years. Previous researches have made attempts to explore factors determining the efficiency of the sector such as the low capacity of contractors (both financial and equipment, shortage of skilled human resource on technical, managerial, and entrepreneurial skills, etc…), the poor performances of the supply chain, inflation in the economy and so on. However, process and system-based challenges of the sector resulting from the existing legal frameworks governing the sector such as the modes of delivery of projects (modes of contracting) have not been a subject of extensive study. In this study, doctrinal and non-doctrinal legal research methods are employed to explore project delivery system(s) recognized in Ethiopia's public work contract laws and appraise their efficiency in terms of ensuring prompt completion of public construction projects. The doctrinal aspect of the research exposed that, despite an implied recognition of Design-Build (DB) and its variant forms of project delivery system, the country's public work contract laws set up Design-Bid-Build (DBB) as a default mode of contracting. Besides, the result from a survey questionnaire of 158 respondents which was computed by using Research Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to generate the Relative Importance Index (RII) of each mode of contracting corroborated by primary data derived from the completion and status report of 40 road and 9 building projects, shows that even though construction project time overrun (delay) often happens in both routes of contracting, the magnitude of such inefficiency is greater in public projects of DBB than DB delivery mode.

Construction contracts are susceptible to disputes as they regulate very complex multi-party relationships. Previous studies not only fail to aptly outline the distinction between "conflict" and "dispute", but also fail to adequately study the causes of construction disputes in-light of project delivery systems. The present research aims at assessing the causes and settlement mechanisms of construction disputes in Design-Bid-Build (DBB) and Design-Build (DB) delivery systems with a view to add evidence to the existing knowledge. Accordingly, four most relevant causes of construction disputes identified from previous works of literature were incorporated in a questionnaire survey to determine their frequency of occurrence in the two delivery systems. The Relative Important Index (RII) of the four direct causes of construction disputes computed by SPSS software revealed that, in DBB contracts, the frequency of occurrence of disputable claims (unsettled claims for money/extension of time) has RII = 0.794969/0.777358, project delay has RII = 0.708176, and poor quality of work has RII = 0.469182. In DB contracts, the frequency of occurrence of disputable claims has RII = 0.533333/0.515723, project delay has RII = 0.495597, and poor quality of work has RII = 0.465409. The RII values proved that, DBB projects are significantly prone to disputes than DB projects. Furthermore, qualitative data obtained from road and building project reports exposed that DBB projects are exceedingly prone to disputes because they are frequently vulnerable to an increase in the volume of work due to frequent change orders and design deficiencies. The research further found out that, despite a clear proscription in the laws of the land, there is a routine out of court settlement of public construction disputes in Ethiopia.

This paper explores the process by which Korean nationalism was challenged and transformed through utilizing sports celebrities as iconic figures during the International Monetary Fund [IMF] intervention in South Korea. The influences of the IMF intervention were not limited in economic and political fields: rather, Korean nationalism had undergone substantial changes through the national crisis. At that time, two Korean athletes who made huge success in the U.S. became national celebrities, or even national heroes in South Korea. The media representation of two Korean athletes provides useful details of understanding altered nationalism during the IMF intervention. The analysis of media coverage of two athletes can be summarized into three ways: first, the coverage is focused on a self-governing individual; second, that individual is invested with the image of economic success in global competition; and third, that individual is invested with the image of responsibility for both family and nation-state. Conclusively, two celebrities were presented as a model for a new kind of citizenship, i.e. a national individual. Finally, this paper suggests that Korean nationalism has been altered through the IMF intervention, but it still remained as hegemonic ideology by co-opting with neoliberalism.

This study investigates governmentality in the relationships between local governments and global sports by examining the contexts of broadcasting Major League Baseball [MLB] in South Korea. Compared to how the Korean Baseball League [KBO] was used in the 1980s to divert public interest from political issues and encourage state-nationalism, the sensational popularity of MLB in the 1990s helped construct alternative governmentality during the IMF intervention. This new governmentality not only legitimated global competition, it also emphasized responsible individuals and a new kind of citizen. Rather than arguing either total failure or success of the governmentality of the 1990s, this study suggests that individuated-nationalism was its consequence, meaning that most Koreans remained deeply involved with nationalistic discourse but responded to it in different and diverse ways.

This paper examines complex inteactions of sport, nationalism and media in South Korea by questioning how mediated sporting events are (re)constituting nationalism. Analyses of media representations of three Olympics (1968, 1984 and 2000) in South Korean newspapers focus particularly on the country’s changing political and economic circumstances. A contextual and historic approach to this data shows that sporting nationalism has been both fundamental and salient to these changes, and also suggests that it changes in response to contextual shifts. I conclude both that sporting nationalism in the media is a not a fixed or unilateral entity but rather flexible and multidimensional, and that its transformation is both constituted by and constitutive of general societal changes and the shifting status of nationalism in particular. Finally, this study supports the necessity of media studies on nationalism in sports, which will provide important clues for explicating the shifting status and roles of nationalism in the global era.

This paper seeks, first, to examine the impact of media technologies on the expansion of U.S. sports in South Korea: second, to investigate globalizing and localizing strategies of the U.S. sports in the 90s. By paying attention to the localizing strategies, this paper shows that not only technological capabilities but also contextual elements within South Korea (e.g., economics, politics and ideologies) influence local production, distribution, and consumption of U.S. sports. In the late 90s, the U.S. sports were consumed in a nationalistic discourse in South Korea not only because Korean players began to perform in the U.S. but also because South Korea suffered the economic crisis simultaneously. Korean players in the U.S. were treated as national heroes. The analysis of the case of South Korea suggests that the globalization of cultural commodities needs to be understood beyond the dichotomy between cultural homogenization and heterogenization. Rather, this paper argues that Korean government and national sentiment still play important role in increasing popularity of U.S. sports in South Korea.

This study uses the lens of glocalization (Robertson, 1995) to explore how the expansion of U.S. sports in South Korea since the late 1990s influences the de/reconstitution of the national among local sports fans. I specifically look at how the impact of global sports such as Major League Baseball transforms structures of the national among Korean sports fans. I conclude that the term “individuated nationalism” best explains the ways that fans rationalize national fandom of Major League Baseball in terms of their personal tastes.

The mass festive rally that took place in South Korea during the 2002 World Cup was more than a sporting event. As a way of understanding the national frenzy and people’s experiences during the World Cup, we interpret the mass festive rally as a form of social performance. In doing so, we portray this sporting event as a national stage, with Korean supporters as performers and the worldwide audience as spectators. This study uses the term “nation-ness” to encapsulate the idea of nation that links such disparate phenomena as nation, nationalism, and nationality. Through the examination of various performances within the rally as well as of various reactions (governmental, corporate, and public) it reveals that the spectacle contained three dimensions of performance: as evolving processes; as a betwixt-and-between; and in everyday life. Attention to the performative aspects of the event contributes to illuminating this phenomenon as a set of evolving processes that are closely tied to contemporary South Korean society. Through analyzing South Koreans’ performance in the World Cup, we suggest that nation-ness was performed as cultural practices that were utilized for individual revelation, and as expressions of nationalism interwoven with globalism.

This study questions the term “East Asia” by investigating its usage in South Korean mass media and academic discourse about the Korean Wave and by reframing the Korean Wave as a source of new definitions of the cultural geography of East Asia and East Asian sensibilities instead of its current designations as either an empty signifier or a profitable market. Reframing the Korean Wave as a set of seminal iterations of East Asian pop culture includes its multiplicity and historicity, which enables the delineation of the cultural geography of East Asia as neither a unilateral nor fixed topography but rather something that is constantly reimagined via pan-Asian pop cultures, materialized through actual encounters, and reinvented through shared historic pasts and modernizing desires. Examining East Asian pop culture also helps to illuminate current structures of feeling in East Asia (“East Asian sensibilities”). The study concludes with suggestions for future collaborative works and theoretical endeavors, which are imperative for the establishment of East Asian pop culture as an object of analysis.

Sport celebrity is now salient across mass media and a familiar aspect of people’s everyday lives. This project addresses a gap in celebrity studies by focusing on the specificity of sport celebrity and its unique contribution to contemporary Asian society.  For this purpose, this study examines three aspects of sports celebrity in Asia: 1) genealogy of the representation of sport athletes in South Korea;  2) sport celebrities caught between national heroism and global commodification such as Yao Ming in China and Suzuki Ichiro in Japan; 3) Diaporic Chinese athletes in the 2008 Beijing Olympics with focus on the case of South Korea national team.  This study shows how symbiotic relations between media and sport enable the mobility of sport celebrities, specifically the cross-border flourishing of their fame and images of them.  Nonetheless, in Asia the configurations of sport celebrity are attached to fixed nationalities associated with citizenship, nationalist discourses, and postcolonial desires. I conclude that this multiplicity among flexible mobility, limited citizenship and inflexible nationality is a distinctive characteristic of sports celebrity in Asia.